A COMPARATIVE CROSS-NATIONAL ACCOUNT OF SOCIAL POLICY

COMPARATIVE CROSS-NATIONAL ACCOUNT OF SOCIAL POLICY IN "HEALTHCARE"

Introduction

The dimensions of population ageing are now well documented. All OECD member countries are experiencing population ageing, with some changes occurring at a faster pace in some countries compared to others. According to the recent study the variation in population ageing showed that the Netherlands have to face relatively more minor challenges and Italy and Portugal affected more significantly (Busee & Riesberg, 2004). The ageing of society as a whole will put new pressures on the public service. It will have to make major readjustments to face the increased demand for social and long-term care services for the elderly. The pressure is increasing in majority of the countries, for the 19 countries where this information is available, the OECD projects an average increase in health and long-term care spending of around 3-3.5 percentage points of GDP over the period from 2000-50. The health care systems are usually categorized in three different segments. This was done with the help of OECD in1987, the three dimensions were first, the access to care measured by the degree of coverage. Second, the principles of funding i.e. help of taxation, private and public insurance. Finally ,the care provision-with the help of public-private partnerships.

On the basis of this criteria several systems of health care provision has been formed in several countries. In Sweden and UK for instance, there is model named National Health Service (NHS) which allows the coverage on the basis of residency requirements (universal), provision to the system is exclusively public, and funding is done the basis of taxation (Wendt, 2009). The other extreme of the system is Private insurances system which exists in the United States. This system allows the funding and provision through external institutions and other private actors. Mostly, employers purchase the private health insurance so as to offer the occupational health care services plans to the employees. Since, this is the voluntary program, therefore large numbers of people are excluded with the primary health care insurance resulting in low degree of universality. Germany and Austria are seemed to achieve the medium approach in this regard. This approach involves the quasi-universal access to the employees through the employer but with the compulsory health care insurance. The source of financing is done with the funds obtained through the non-profit insurance, and the provision is guaranteed with mix of public-private partnerships (Reibleing, 2010). The central to the development of these types of systems is based on whether the source of financing is based on public-private insurance, or on taxation.

The study conducted by Doorslaer et al., (2006) showed that across twenty one OECD countries there is a poor-rich distribution of physician's visits in about half of the countries including Sweden. Further, the study showed that the countries involved in inequity of health care access are Portugal, Finland, Sweden, and the United States. The institutional regulations which are used to structure the entry and passage of the patients through the ...